Two Chinese Super League sides (Jiangsu Suning and Beijing Guoan) are interested in Bale's signature and plan to make him the best paid CSL player.

There has been a constant flow of rumours in the past few months linking Gareth Bale with a number of clubs after it became clear in the final weeks of the 2018-19 season that the striker did not form part of Zidane's plans for the new season. Months have passed and as the 2019-20 season looms, the Welshman is still a Real Madrid player. Few clubs have the deep financial resources to cover the Cardiff born player's annual salary of 14.5 million euro per season. There were talks of a return to former club Tottenham with Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino distancing himself from the speculation: “I know nothing of this rumour and have only read reports in the press”. In truth, Bale has been offered to the bulk of wealthy European clubs (Manchester United, PSG, Bayern) with talk in the UK press this weekend that a swap deal between PSG involving Neymar to be a possibility.

It appears that the player's agent Jonathan Barnett is looking for a club in China for his client with interest emerging from two suitors: Jiangsu Suning (who own 70% shareholding in Serie A side Inter) and Beijing Guoan. Both teams are prepared to make Bale the best paid player in the CSL but it's yet to be established what fee the clubs are prepared to Real Madrid for his signature. Local Chinese FA regulations regarding foreign players stipulate that the purchasing club has to pay the same fee for the player to the Federation (ie. if the fee for Bale is 50 million euro, then a further 50 needs to be paid to the CFA.

Houston...

The matter concerning the Welsh player's future came to a critical point in Houston yesterday where the striker played no role in the Madrid-Bayern ICC 2019 friendly game. In the post match press conference seven of the 11 questions fielded by Zidane related to Gareth Bale. "He wasn't called up because the club is dealing with his transfer elsewhere and that's why he didn't play. We'll see what happens with him over the next few days". The French coach added: "Let's hope it can be resolved quickly for everyone's sake - for him too. The club is negotiating with another club where he could end up playing and that's the situation as things stand".

AS later spoke with agent Jonathan Barnett who claimed: “If Gareth Bale leaves, it will be because he wants to, not because Zidane or Real Madrid push him out”,BarnetttoldAS. “Gareth is still one of the best players in the world, one of the top five players in terms of market value, and his future lies at a big club”. "Zidane is being very ungrateful to Bale",Barnett added regarding the coach's comments following the Bayern game. “I don't know if Madrid are really working finding another club for him. But it's very clear what I am doing about the situation”.